TN police chase and Tased shoplifters
Madisonville TN November 19 2018
Shoplifting charges at the two Walmarts in Monroe County are almost a daily occurrence, but sometimes they go beyond an item slipped into a pocket.
Three recent incidents in Sweetwater and Madisonville show how things can play out sometimes at the super retailer when you allegedly do not want to pay.
Last Saturday, Sweetwater Sgt. Brandon Cansler said he responded to a call of two suspected shoplifters who were being held at the store, but by the time he arrived the suspects had managed to get away and take off in a truck.
The truck had gone south on Highway 11 and Cansler said he found truck on the highway and stopped it as it turned onto Head of the Creek Road.
Cansler said he identified the driver as Joseph Lowe and the passenger as Tyler Watson, both from McMinn County. Cansler asked the men if he could look in the truck and they said he could. When Cansler looked around the vehicle, he said he saw batteries, tools and wireless charging devices, all still in their packages.
Cansler took the two men into custody and went back to the store, where the men and the items were positively identified. Loss prevention told Cansler the men had loaded up a buggy with $1,082 worth of merchandise and tried to walk out of the store without paying.
When asked about the items, the men handed over a receipt for a ring that had not been bought at the store, according to arrest warrants.
Lowe, 31, Virginia Avenue, Athens, and Watson, 24, Highway 30, Etowah, were both charged with theft over $1,000.
Then, on Saturday, it was the Madisonville store’s turn and officers ended up having to break out a Taser to take down an alleged shoplifter.
Officer Kyle Day said he and another officer were sent to the store on a call of a man taking items and putting them into a backpack.
Day said they watched the man on the camera doing this and then leave the store. Day said they confronted the man in the parking lot and he took off on foot toward a car that appeared be there to get him.
Day said he was telling the man to stop but he would not, so as he tried to get in the vehicle, Day used his Taser on him.
After that, the man, identified as Robert Lee Wright, 36, Medlin Road, Cleveland, was taken back into the store where Loss Prevention identified him as someone who had been banned from Walmart back in April.
Wright was charged with theft of property under $1,000, criminal trespassing and evading arrest.
On Tuesday, an alleged shoplifter was back in the Sweetwater store.
Officer Michael Pippin said he was sent to the store on a call of a man running from the store’s loss prevention staff before he was caught in the Garden Department.
When he arrived, Pippin said the man was holding two light bulbs and Loss Prevention said he had put the bulbs in his pocket and tried to leave without paying for them. Pippin asked the man if he had taken the bulbs and he allegedly admitted he had. Pippin then asked him for identification and the man pulled out his wallet, identifying himself as Benjamin Sledge, 27, County Road 266, Sweetwater.
Pippin took Sledge into the loss prevention office and was told the suspect had allegedly stuck something that looked like a bag of drugs into a concrete block he was leaning against.
Pippin said he found the bag and it did contain clear, crystal substance that appeared to be meth. Pippin asked Sledge about it, reminding him that there were cameras in the garden center. Sledge allegedly admitted the bag was his and said he earned it by working for someone.
Sledge was arrested and charged with simple possession of meth and shoplifting.
